It was with reference to some joking comment by Courtenay on
these missives that his sister wrote to congratulate him on having
escaped matrimony under such conditions. Elsie, brimful of high
spirits, amused herself by teasing him with nice phrases culled from
each of the six.
Long before noon the _Kansas_ cleared White Horse Island. There was a
ticklish hour while Courtenay and Boyle looked for the shoal. When its
long, low sandspit was revealed by the falling tide, the ship took
thought of her agony there, and traversed those treacherous waters with
due reverence. Thenceforth, the run was due south until eight bells,
when, for the second time within a fortnight, the captain set the
course "South-40-East."
A stiff breeze blowing from the south-west, and heavy clouds rolling up
over the horizon, showed that the land of storms was repenting the
phenomenal frivolity which had let it bask in sunshine for an unbroken
spell of ten days. But the gale which whistled into Good Hope Inlet
that night carried with it no disabled and blood-stained ship. Mr.
Malcolm, who got his diminished squad of stewards in hand as though the
vessel had quitted port that day, served dinner promptly at two bells
in the second dog watch--by which no allusion is intended to an animal
already gorged to repletion--and wore a proper professional air of
annoyance because everybody was late, owing to the interesting fact
that the half-minute fixed dashing light on Evangelistas Island had
just been sighted.
Pages:
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403